In a magnetic memory including a magnetoresistive element such as a spin-transfer-torque magnetic random access memory (STT-MRAM), current required for magnetization inversion of a magnetoresistive element is defined by current density. That is, such a magnetic memory has a scalability that the current required for magnetization inversion decreases in accordance with reduction in size of the magnetoresistive element. Such a magnetic memory is one of the strong candidates for a next generation memory.
On the other hand, in order to commercialize such a magnetic memory including a magnetoresistive element, as done for a conventional semiconductor memory, a test is necessary to detect a fail bit which does not satisfy requirements and to replace the detected fail bit with a pass bit which satisfies the requirements by using, for example, a redundancy technique. However, a proper test method for such a magnetic memory has not been verified to this date.